SERMON FOR EVENSONG
HAMPSTEAD PARISH CHURCH
Advent 2, 6 December 2020
Psalms
OT Reading: 1 Kings 22.1-28
NT Reading: Romans 15.4-13
The god of hope (Romans 5.13)
In his letter to the Romans Paul draws on his profound understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures to make the case for Jewish Christians to see in Jesus the fulfilment of their hope for a Messiah, and at the same time for the Gentiles – that’s all the rest of us – to see in Jesus the fulfilment of our hopes. As he draws his argument to its conclusion, he urges steadfastness, pointing to the encouragement of the scriptures as grounds for his own hope as a Jew (v5), whilst citing several passages of Scripture which extend that same hope to the Gentiles.
This evening’s Old Testament reading is not perhaps the most obvious example of the encouragement of the scriptures. Israel’s King Ahab and his wicked Queen Jezebel, surrounding themselves with hundreds of false prophets, are no role model for a godfearing ruler, and the voice of the one true prophet – Micaiah – would not have been heard at all if King Jehoshaphat of Judah had not pressed Ahab to consult him. Ahab knows what to expect – he never prophesies anything favourable about me, only disaster – and sure enough, when pressed, Micaiah does indeed prophesy defeat. He is thrown into prison for speaking the truth, and his advice is ignored. If you read on to the end of the chapter, you will see that Ahab goes into battle in disguise, hoping perhaps to direct any hostile fire onto his ally Jehoshaphat in his kingly robes, but it is Ahab who is felled by a stray arrow, and dies in a pool of his own blood, propped up in his chariot to observe the course of the battle.
So where is the encouragement of the scriptures in all that? We need to take a longer view of history than is provided by a brief snapshot of King Ahab. Paul argues that God has indeed remained steadfast in his faithful and loving care for his people. But now he has carried forward his steadfast purpose in a new and even better way through the extension of his ancient promises to the new people of God, the Christian communities at Rome and elsewhere in which Jews and Gentiles have come together. The Church at its best is the realisation of that hope
which is ours by the encouragement of the scriptures, as with one voice we glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (v6).
At the very beginning of his letter to the Romans Paul proclaims the primacy of the gospel, the good news about God revealed in the person of Jesus, as the power of God for salvation for Jews and Gentiles alike. In [the gospel] he says, the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith. That needs a bit of unpacking. First then Paul invites us to see the righteousness of God through faith, through the unchanging faithfulness of God to His people, seen first in the scriptures, and then fully and finally in the life of Jesus. Then this revelation of God’s righteousness is given to us for faith, for our faith, because God’s supremely generous and costly act of self-revelation in Jesus elicits in us that faithful response of human trust by which we receive his gift of salvation.
We do not win salvation as a reward for what we do; we receive it as a gift for what we are; and what we are is shaped by what we believe. For Paul it’s all about faith. Paul reminds us that Abraham put his trust in God even before circumcision marked God’s special relationship with him and his family. Thus Abraham is the ancestor of all who believe (4.11/12), and our faith – like his – is reckoned by God to our credit as righteousness. What really matters is not our scrupulous keeping of the law, but the simple act of putting our trust in God, whose love has been poured into our hearts through the gift of the Holy Spirit (5.5), and allowing that love to shape our lives. As children of the Spirit we receive the gift of life, rather than the kiss of death which was our destiny as children of Adam (ch 6). [We become servants of God’s law (ch 7), the law which God writes in our hearts, rather than slaves to our self-centred human passions, and at the last God, who knows what is in our hearts, will not condemn us.] The climax of Paul’s gospel comes in chapter 8 where he expresses his conviction that nothing in heaven or on earth can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (8.38/39).
Having laid these foundations for the centrality of faith as the key to the Christian life, Paul explores in chapters 9 to 11 the distinct but equal standing of Jews and Gentiles in the love of God, and in chapters 12 to 14 some of the ethical consequences of a religious life grounded in faith rather than the law.
Now, at the end of his letter, as he draws the exposition of his argument to a triumphant close, Paul prays that the God of hope will fill us with all joy and peace
in believing, so that we may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom 15.13). What that asked of God has been proclaimed in Jesus’ life of humble loving service, which did not even hold back from laying down his life to break, once and for all, sin’s power to spoil and destroy. What is asked of us is captured in that one word ‘believing’. It’s a bit like a proposal of marriage. If we can take that one bold step, if we can say ‘yes’ to the love of God which reaches out to us in the person of Jesus, then we shall find in responding to God’s love the true destiny for which we were made.
When all is said and done, there is nothing in all creation that can give us more joy and more peace than to know the love of God, to know in our hearts that God understands us through and through, to know that he is ready to forgive us where we have fallen short, to know that he values us for all that we are and all that we aspire to be, to know that he delights in our love as we delight in his. As we turn to Him, as a flower turns to the sun, we are nurtured, fulfilled and empowered by His love. It is our experience of the love of God reaching out to us in sorrow and in joy, in good times and bad, that is the sure ground of our hope for ourselves, for our nation, for our planet, for all that God has made.
That is what Paul means when he holds before us the promise that we may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. In this Advent season, as we prepare to welcome the coming of Jesus, let us carry that message of hope in our hearts. And the God of hope, the God of all that our hearts long for, will fill us with all joy and peace.